There was a time when Netflix was the only streaming service, before other big studios entered the market and broke its monopoly. Since then, the streaming platform has had to find new ways to attract viewers beyond its titles, and has become more transparent about its viewership numbers.
In late 2023, Netflix released its first engagement report called What We Watched, which covered the first half of the year. The second half came in May 2024, with the streamer releasing its third edition in September 2024, covering the months between June and January 2024. Speaking at the Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York City ahead of the engagement report’s release, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos challenged other streaming competitors to be more “transparent” when it comes to their viewership numbers, according to Deadline.
Ahead of the new engagement report, Sarandos also said that Netflix would “look great” compared to other streaming competitors because people will be able to see a “phenomenal” amount of Netflix daily viewing detail. He also explained that the document sheds light on the fact that “the biggest movies of the year are these movies that are made for Netflix and only air on Netflix.”
2024 Viewing Report Shows 94 Billion Hours of Total Watching for the first half of the year, with Sarandos contributing, “It's a long time.” Sarandos further explained that the streaming platform has 280 million subscribers globally, but that it will stop reporting subscriber counts in 2025. He further explained the move because of the different subscription options that “don't connect as neatly to revenue and profit growth as they have in the past.”
What were Netflix's biggest titles in 2024?
The engagement report is very detailed, broken down into TV and movie titles. It contains information on global availability, release date, hours watched, total duration, and total views. The top title was the Millie Bobby Brown movie, Bridesmaidwith 143.8 million views. The fantasy film premiered on March 8 and, despite poor critical response, was a major hit on the platform. It was followed by Kevin Hart's comedy, Lift upwhich had a total of 129.4 million views.
The biggest surprise was Fool me oncethe adaptation of Harlan Coben's 2016 novel of the same name, which topped the charts with 107.5 million views. The limited series beat out the likes of Bridgerton Bridge Season 3 (of which, when Netflix stopped the clock for its report, it had only premiered the first part of the season) and Baby ReindeerThe series also earned a spot on Netflix's list of the most popular TV shows of all time, coming in at number eight.
Other popular films were the Oscar-nominated Spanish film, Snow Societythe french survival horror about sharks Under ParisBrooke Shields' new romantic comedy, Mother of the BrideJennifer Lopez's sci-fi film panned by critics Atlasand Lindsay Lohan's romantic comedy Irish Desirealong with animations like The movie Super Mario Bros., Minions, MinionsAND The chief childOn the television side, the TV series based on Guy Ritchie's novel The gentlemen achieved fourth place, followed by Avatar: The Last Airbenderthe limited series GriseldaAmerican Nightmare, science fiction 3 Body problem, Berlinthe prequel spin-off of the Spanish hit The paper houseAND One daythe limited series based on the novel of the same name by David Nicholls, previously adapted with Anne Hathaway and Jim Surgess in 2011.
All titles are available for streaming on Netflix.
Source: Deadline